Hi everyone, this is more of a sad update, but you all deserve to be aware. One of Neo's babies ended up with megacolon, which is a condition that keeps the babies from being able to pass their feces. This causes extreme discomfort and pain, and unfortunately, there is no cure. He could be placed on a very sensitive diet, but even then, that would only prolong the inevitable. MC causes slow, painful deaths, so he has been humanely put to sleep.
It breaks my heart that this had to happen. I've never experienced it in my years of breeding, but the DWS gene is linked with the ailment. He was the only one with this, and signs would have already shown if others had the condition. There is a chance that elderly DWS rats can experience late megacolon, but it is not seen often. The rats I got to breed did not have any history of it with their siblings or their ancestors. Hoping the same continues on with these ratties. Later Edit: On the topic of megacolon, I was just informed by another reputable breeder, who has more experience with the DWS (high white gene), that early onset megacolon can show up as late as 12 weeks. From what I had read, it seemed that it showed once they started eating solids, but that is not the case. Due to this, any DWS rats will not be available for adoption until they are 12 weeks old so they are fully cleared from having any health issues early on. I know this news is going to put a damper on nearly everyone waiting for babies, seeing as Priestess's litter is the only on that doesn't have any DWS babies. This does push the wait an additional 4 weeks, but I hope everyone is fully understanding with this. I could not even imagine adopting out a baby that ends up having this condition. It would be such a hard experience for the families that take them home as well as the babies it happens to, if any at all. I would much rather hold them a little longer to ensure none of this happens to anyone than to adopt out at 8 weeks and hope for the best.
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Hey guys! I've got lots of pictures I've needed to post on here, but the holiday season has kept me busy. I'm hoping to get them all up tomorrow, even some of the older ones I didn't get around to posting. Thank you for bearing with me, and feel free to message me anytime if you've not seen an update in a minute. Chances are, I've just forgotten. I haven't had this blog section long enough to make it a habit of updating yet. I promise these pictures are so worth the wait though!
14 babies! 4 females and 10 whole males!! It feels so so good to have everything fall into place so nicely, AND two dumbo boys!!! What?? There was like a 15% chance Priestess carried the dumbo gene, which was super unlikely because her mother didn't. SO surprised at this. One of them will most likely be my keeper male to continue this line. Ashki fathered his last litter with these babies, and is enjoying retirement with one of his past ladies and retired does <3 They're my old, retired couple! :) So, his successor will be from this 4th generation litter of his line, and I would love a dumbo son from him! However, if there is another that calls my name, I would be keeping him instead. We'll see how it all works out! :)
There are some wedge blazed males, and there's such a variety of patterns with the females! <3 All still appear to be dumbos, but there are 1-2 that may be standard eared. Hoping it's a full litter of dumbos though! All of these babies will have Rex coats as well.
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